Surrey, BC Dealer Opens New Location in Ferndale, Washington

Surrey, BC-based Breakwater Marine will be opening a dealership in Ferndale, Washington this month. The opening of what will be the dealership's third location falls on the anniversary of Breakwater Marine's second year of operation.

Owned by Fred Moore and Aaron Fell, formerly regional managers of Olympic Boat Centers (which filed for bankruptcy in July 2008), Breakwater hopes the Ferndale location will help the dealership capture some Canadian cross-border business.

“We wanted to be able to give Canadians headed to the United States to buy boats another option,” explains Fell. “Right now the majority of pre-owned boats that are coming into British Columbia are being imported privately by customers. The border lineups up here are three hours every single day because the dollar is almost at par. Rather than competing or having to service these imported boats we thought we'd embrace it and offer the service.”

The Ferndale location is on 3.5 acres of land and has a 15,000 square-foot showroom, parts and service centre. It's located approximately 19 kilometres south of the American border off of Interstate 5. Fell believes it to be a high traffic area and a perfect location for the new dealership. “We will have a very large consignment and pre-owned yard,” he describes. “It will also offer the brands we carry.”

According to Fell, Breakwater's Canadian customers will be able buy product located at the dealer's Ferndale facility and finance it in Surrey. The unit will then be delivered to the Surrey location without the customer incurring a shipping fee. “This is about providing a higher level of service to British Columbia boaters who don't know how to get a boat into the province,” says Fell.

Fell says the new location will also provide pricing benefits to the dealership's customer base. “Because we now have more buying power, we'll be able to provide better pricing for some our boat lines such as Larson,” says Fell.

Breakwater Marine is a dealer of Glastron, Striper, Larson, Centurion and FinCraft boats as well as Mercury and Volvo Penta engines.